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The Time Traders

If it is possible to conquer space, then perhaps it is also possible to conquer time. At least that was the theory American scientists were exploring in an effort to explain the new sources of knowledge the Russians possessed. Perhaps Russian scientists had discovered how to transport themselves back in time in order to learn long-forgotten secrets of the past.

Voodoo Planet

Andrew North was a pen name of Andre Norton, one of the best and most prolific science fiction writers ot the 20th century. She was the first woman to win the Gandalf Grand Master Award from the World Science Fiction Society in 1977. In this story, a young spaceman is delighted to be invited to a fantastic vacation planet but soon finds himself in the middle of a battle where the weapons resemble a powerful form of Voodoo.

Star Hunter

In this story, a teenage boy suddenly finds himself whisked away for his dead end job on an outlying planet,to a jungle planet where he begins having strange dreams of his past. Suddenly, he finds himself in the middleof a thrill-packed plot involving a criminal mastermind and Rass Hume, the "ouhunterr" who was responsiblefor the sudden change in his fortunes.

Storm over Warlock

In this story, an alien race known as the "Throgs" attacks a Terran survey camp without warning. "Eye-searing lances of energy lashed back and forth across the base with methodical accuracy, and a single cowering witness, flattened on a ledge in the heights above, knew that when the last of those yellow-red bolts fell, nothing human would be left alive down there."

Witch World

Simon Tregarth, a man from our own world, escapes his doom through the gates to the Witch World. There he aids the witch Jaelithe's escape from the hounds of Alizon, only to find himself embroiled in a deeper war against an even deadlier foe: the Kolder.

On Basilisk Station: Honor Harrington, Book 1

Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk station and given an antique ship to police the system. The vindictive superior who sent her there wants her to fail. But he made one mistake: he's made her mad....

The Beast Master

Left homeless by the war that reduced Terra to a radioactive cinder, Hosteen Storm - Navaho commando and master of beasts - is drawn to the planet Arzor, to kill a man he has never met. On that dangerous frontier world, aliens and human colonists share the land in an uneasy truce. But something is upsetting the balance, and Storm is caught in the middle. He had thought the war was over - but was it?

A Mind for Trade

The Solar Queen and its new sister ship, North Star, have embarked on a mission to a planet rich in lucrative ore. Armed with their experience on the galactic rim, the independent traders descend to the surface to discover a bizarre set of dangers. A strange electromagnetic force is killing miners stranded from the former crew of the North Star. Weather is terrible, with enormous disturbances throughout the atmosphere of the entire planet.

Foreigner: Foreigner Sequence 1, Book 1

The first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

Falling Free

Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall. Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?

The Emerald Brooch: The Celtic Brooch Series, Book 4

West Point graduate Kenzie Wallis-Manning planned to make the Army her career, but after being severely wounded during her second deployment, and suffering from PTSD, she retires from the military and enrolls in law school. While studying in England, she receives a package containing an emerald brooch with a Gaelic inscription. As soon as she sounds out the words engraved on the stone, she is whisked back in time to May 28, 1944.

People of the Crater

Garin Featherstone has been sent to explore a mysterious blue haze that was spotted in the polar region. There he discovers a lost civilization and a strange environment of vivid green lands, crimson tree trunks, and golden rivers. He must save Thrala of the light against the lizard men.

The Ruby Brooch: Time Travel Romance: The Celtic Brooch Trilogy, Book 1

As the sole survivor of the car crash that killed her parents, grief-stricken paramedic Kit MacKlenna is stunned to learn her life is built on lies. A legacy from her father includes a faded letter and a well-worn journal. The journal reveals she was abandoned as a baby 160 years ago. The only clues to her identity are a blood-splattered shawl, a locket with the portrait of a 19th century man, and a Celtic brooch with magical powers.

The Purloined Poodle

Thanks to his relationship with the ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan, Oberon the Irish wolfhound knows trouble when he smells it - and furthermore, he knows he can handle it. When he discovers that a prizewinning poodle has been abducted in Eugene, Oregon, he learns that it's part of a rash of hound abductions all over the Pacific Northwest. Since the police aren't too worried about dogs they assume have run away, Oberon knows it's up to him to track down those hounds and reunite them with their humans. For justice! And gravy!

Dragonsong: Harper Hall Trilogy, Volume 1

Dragonsong is the spellbinding tale of Menolly of Half Circle Hold, a brave young girl who flees her seaside village and discovers the legendary fire lizards of Pern. All her life, Menolly has longed to learn the ancient secrets of the Harpers, the master musicians of Harper Hall. When her stern father denies her the chance to make her dream come true, Menolly runs away from home. Hiding in a cave by the sea, she finds nine magical fire lizards who join her on a breathtaking journey to Harper Hall.

The Enemy of an Enemy: Lost Tales of Power, Book 1

Vydor was on a fast track to the highest-ranking position in the Imperial Navy’s security forces and was recently assigned to the senior staff of the flagship of the Navy, the Dragon Claw. All he wanted to do his entire life was to serve his god, the Emperor, and given his phenomenal performance during his training in the Naval Academy, it seemed he would be able to do just that.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.

The Elvenbane

Two masters of epic fantasy have combined in this brilliant collaboration to create a rousing tale. This is the story of Shana, a half-breed born of the forbidden union of an Elvenlord father with a human mother. Her exiled mother dead, Shana was rescued and raised by dragons, a proud, ancient race who existed unbeknownst to elven or human kind. From birth, Shana was the embodiment of the Prophecy that the all-powerful Elvenlords feared. Her destiny is the enthralling adventure of a lifetime.

Bold: Kris Longknife, Book 14

Despite her role as a fleet admiral and protector of a planetary system, Kris is still beholden to her great-grandfather King Raymond's commands. She has been personally selected for a mission that will, should she succeed, save millions of lives. The Peterwald Empire is in the midst of civil war. On one side is the tyrannical empress; on the other is the last person Kris ever wants to see again: Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald. Due to their shared history, the emperor believes Kris can mediate between the factions and bring about peace.

Skinwalker: Jane Yellowrock, Book 1

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind-a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. But now she's been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie's Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who's killing other vamps.

Starship's Mage Omnibus: Starship's Mage Series #1

In a galaxy tied together by the magic of the elite Jump Magi, Damien Montgomery is a newly graduated member of their number. With no family or connections to find a ship, he is forced into service on an interstellar freighter known to be hunted by pirates. When he takes drastic action to save the Blue Jay from their pursuers, he sets in motion a sequence of events beyond his control and attracts enemies on both sides of the law.

Double Share: A Trader's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 4

In his first assignment as an officer, Ishmael Horatio Wang finds himself fresh out of school, wet behind the ears, and way out of his depth. Aboard the William Tinker the senior officers are derelict and abusive, the crew demoralized and undisciplined, and change unwelcomed and dangerous. Can Ishmael use what he learned aboard the Lois McKendrick to help the crew find the ship's heart? Or will he discover that bucking the system may come at too high a price?

A Learning Experience, Book 1

When a bunch of interstellar scavengers approach Earth intending to abduct a few dozen humans and sell them into slavery in the darkest, they make the mistake of picking on Steve Stuart and his friends, ex-military veterans all. Unprepared for humans who can actually fight, unaware of the true capabilities of their stolen starships, the scavengers rapidly lose control of the ship - and their lives.

Ark Royal

Seventy years ago, the interstellar supercarrier Ark Royal was the pride of the Royal Navy. But now, her weapons are outdated and her solid-state armour nothing more than a burden on her colossal hull. She floats in permanent orbit near Earth, a dumping ground for the officers and crew the Royal Navy wishes to keep out of the public eye. But when a deadly alien threat appears, the modern starships built by humanity are no match for the powerful alien weapons.

Publisher's Summary

It's a good thing that Time Agents are intensively trained. When Ross Murdock and Gordon Ashe set up a time gate on the alien world of Hawaika for an exploration into its troubling past, they didn't anticipate that a storm would sweep them and their helper Karara Trehern and her two dolphins through it unprepared...and then collapse the gate.

Trapped in a time of sword-and-spear technology, they rapidly discover that each of the world's cultures appear to be trying to wipe one another out. But then Chance reveals that this is being manipulated by the spacing civilization, the Baldies, that created the disk-map that enabled them to find Hawaika. And their best shot at surviving will be to pit the magic of the Foanna against the advanced technology of the Baldies. But the Baldies are moving even now to exterminate the Foanna!

Key Out of Time is the fourth book in Andre Norton’s TIME TRADERS series. Ross Murdock is once again the hero (he was not present in the previous book). This time he’s on the planet Hawaika which is being settled by the United States. Ross is accompanied by Gordon Ashe and, because this planet has a lot of ocean, Karara, a Polynesian girl who has telepathic dolphin companions.

When Hawaika turns out to be different from what they expected, Ross, Ashe and Karara begin to investigate. What happened to the people who used to live there? Could the enigmatic aliens they call the “Baldies” have anything to do with their disappearance? The trio decides to go back in time to learn about the planet’s history, but when the time gate is destroyed in a storm, they end up in the past with no way to get back. There they get split up, have separate adventures, get caught in the middle of a war between the two native races, meet some witches who are a lot like the witches in Norton’s WITCH WORLD series, and discover that the Baldies have been tampering with the planet. Will the Time Traders find each other again? Can they help defeat the Baldies? Can they get back to their own time?

I’ve always found it fascinating that Alice Mary Norton’s young adult science fiction adventures, which she wrote in the 1960s under the name Andre Norton, were so clearly written for young men, the main target audience for young adult science fiction at the time. In fact, I’ve heard several men who loved these books when they were teenagers say they would never have picked one up if the name “Alice” had been on the cover. They report that they were quite surprised when they found out years later that Andre Norton was a woman. Perhaps that’s because Norton mostly conforms to expectations — most of her protagonists are young men and men are always in leadership positions. But, unlike many of the male authors of her age, Norton’s female characters are strong and competent, even if they don’t break out of normative gender roles. Here she gives us Karara, a talented young woman who, despite Ross Murdock’s concerns, is perfectly capable of being a Time Trader.

After recently reading a couple of the previous books in the TIME TRADERS series, Key Out of Time feels a little redundant. Though it’s a new setting, so many of the same elements are used — two primitive races on a deserted planet being manipulated by the aliens, telepathic animals helping the modern humans, scary wild animals to fight, Time Traders getting separated by some sort of disaster, Time Traders getting captured by people who may or may not be enemies…. However, Key Out of Time still makes an appealing adventure story for young adults and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who likes old young adult science fiction adventures. Karara and her dolphins are a nice addition, and this is classic Andre Norton.

I enjoyed the audio version read by Mark F. Smith. You can purchase the Kindle version for free (it’s in the public domain) and then add the narration for $2.99. Quite a bargain!

I originally read this in the 1970s and loved it the Audio version loses nothing. I can not recommend for young teen readers (Adult Content) but it is real hard science fiction (the removal of the science makes the story collapse) great performance and creates the excitement I originally felt when I read the book in the 70s..